Just returned from a 12 day cruise to Hawaii on the Carnival Spirit. I am a retired law enforcement officer, my wife is in the insurance industry. We traveled with our two friends from previous cruises, Allen & Karen. We ranged in age from 48 to early 60's. This was our 8th cruise, and the 5th on Carnival. We have been on the Norwegian Majesty, RCCL Sovereign of the Sea, Carnival Imagination, Legend (2x) Destiny and Triumph. To set the matter as to whether I am a staunch Carnival supporter, I remain neutral. To validate that point - I disliked both Destiny and Triumph, loved the Norwegian Majesty, and hated the Sovereign, thoroughly enjoyed the Legend and the Spirit equally.

We left from upstate NY via limo and flew out of Newark Liberty Airport. Although we had arrived at the airport about an hour and half early, we were greeted with lines extending outside the terminal. When I finally made it to a sidewalk luggage counter, I was told that my bags exceeded the 50lb weight limit set by Continental and that I had to wait on the special handling line. He than told me that due to the long lines there too, I was not going to make my flight. He also said that they were not holding flights for passengers. He also told me that if I finished with special handling on time, that I would still have to proceed through security. Once again, he told me that I was going to miss my flight. Of interesting note here - my traveling partner had overweight luggage too. A different handler accepted a 5 dollar tip and my friend was on his way (we had become separated, so I missed using the same handler!). To make this part of the story short, there was a very long line, but it moved swiftly. A customer service person told me not to be concerned, I would not miss our flight - She was correct. We arrived at the gate about 15 minutes early. We flew on from there to San Diego where we were greeted by Carnival staff. We lined up our luggage outside the terminal building where a U-Haul truck loaded it on. We were placed on motor coaches and we proceeded to the port of San Diego for further processing. This was very fast and effortless. We were then encouraged to spend several hours exploring San Diego before we were to reassemble. We took a free shuttle to Sea Port Village, had a meal and took in the sights. The only truly bad part of the story comes next:

After re-boarding the buses to proceed to Ensenada, we journeyed thru Mexico until we arrived at the pier. For reasons still unknown to us, the buses were stopped at the pier entrance. There we sat for almost two hours. The driver was as confused as we were. Any passenger that attempted to walk the short distance from the buses to the ship were turned away by plain clothes security agents. After awhile, a group of us approached a security man in a suit (with a radio) and demanded to know what was happening (at this point, buses were lined up behind ours as far as you could see). He told us that the pier was overloaded with passengers and vehicles and that we would have to wait. We could plainly see the pier directly in front of us and it would empty of vehicles and passengers. We insisted that a spokesman from Carnival come down and speak to us. He promised someone would. Over the course of the two hours, and after repeated demands to speak to someone from Carnival, we were still kept in quarantine outside the entrance. No one showed. Then, early evening, without explanation, all the buses were suddenly allowed in. At that point, the lines moved quickly and we boarded the ship. We had expected to have heard from a Carnival representative about the issue on the pier, but they all seemed to not want to discuss it. When we went to the purser's desk to speak about it, they acted as if they weren't aware that there was a problem with embarkation! Read more